Things to Do: Kids Games

Skippin Rocks

Skippin Rocks is something just about anyone can do and enjoy. All you need to do is find yourself a pretty place along one of our crystal clear streams or rivers and look around for some nice round, smooth, fairly flat river bleached rocks about the size of a quarter or a half dollar.

Once you've picked out the perfect "skippers," it's time to perfect your pitch. Hold the rock between your thumb and fore finger and flick your wrist backwards. On the forward flick of the wrist release the rock so that it hits just at the surface of the water. With practice you'll be able to get your rock to skip over the surface of the water several times before it sinks below the surface.

Skippin rocks is fun to do by yourself or fun to do as a game with friends to see who can get the most skips before the rock sinks. This is also fun with your dog if it likes the water. The dog can't wait to go retrieve the rock. Just make sure you don't throw any rocks at someone or your dog.

Washer Pitchin

Your're gonna need to bring the following items with you: two small size tuna cans (make sure you've cleaned them real good...you don't want smelly clothes); a twenty foot piece of string or rope, and about eight metal washers that will just fit inside the tuna cans.

Now, when you get ready to play, go outside and pick a fairly level site. Stretch the rope out and place a tuna can at either end. Divide the washers up among the players. We don't really like to take the game too seriously so with eight washers you can give 4 folks two washers each or if it's just two folks then keep 4 each.

If you've got 4 folks play in teams of two.

Opposing players stand facing each other at the tuna cans. One player pitches his/her washers at the opposite tuna can hoping the washer lands in the can.

If it does, the player gets 5 points; if it lands touching the can, the player gets 3 points. Each player pitches all of his/her washers before the other player pitches. We usually play to 21 and bragging rights.

Huntin Fossils

If you pay attention to where you walk in these limestone hills you're pretty apt to find all sorts of fossils. You may want to bring a book about fossils so you can identify your find. If you are lucky you may even find what we call a "Texas Heart," which is a fossilized clam and looks just like a heart. Usually they are about the size of a large apple.

One of the best places to fossil hunt is along the creek and river beds where the water has washed away the soil. Another good place is along the road where the earth was cut back to build the road. If you hunt along a roadway make sure and be very careful. We don't want anyone to be hurt.

Makin S'mores

Makin S'mores is probably one of the most fun things you can do and they are yummy to eat as well. To make s'mores you'll have to remember to bring some fixins from home or go by the grocery store when you get here. You're gonna need some marshmallows, chocolate bars and some grahamn crackers for the fixins. You're also going to need some sticks for roasting the marshmallows.

The first thing you have to do is make a campfire. You want to make sure that the area you are in allows fires and that you are very careful and the watch the fire the whole time it is burning. Once the fire is lit you can place one or two marshmallows on your stick and hold the stick over the fire until the marshmallows are "roasted" or are really gooey. Make sure you don't stand too close to the fire so you don't get burned.

After the marshmallow is roasted, take it off the stick and place it on a graham cracker and place a chocolate bar on top and then another graham cracker. You've just made a s'more, one of the yummiest things to eat.

After you've finished makin all the s'mores, don't forget to make sure your fire is extinguished all the way.